Cancun

I know most of you are going to be very bored, because this isn't short. The problem is, I like telling stories, and there are many stories to tell. For those who are just in this for the pictures anyway (admit it!), all of our pictures are posted up with captions here.

Day One

The flight out went well, which is good news when traveling with a 5 month old baby. The first problem came when we tried to pick our luggage, and came up short. Four bags from our group were missing, including two from the same couple and one from us. Upon inquiry, we found out that our bags were not on the direct flight to Cancun, but went to LA, Mexico City, and finally made it to our hotel in Cancun at 3:30 am. Thank heavens my mother reminded me to pack some of everything in each bag, so we weren't short on much.

Then we headed to the big dinner with the whole company. We all were having dinner at the buffet at the resort, and Kaitlyn discovered something. You see, it is DANG HOT IN MEXICO. Especially at night when the ocean breeze goes away. Kaitlyn also decided she did not care for this at all. So she screamed and screamed and screamed. We could calm her down by taking her into the room where you picked up the food, so we alternated that all night.

Then it was time to go out and party, at least for most of the group. Ken (the CEO) has spent weeks talking about going clubbing with everyone that first night, so he wasn't going to let Christopher's clothes being in the wrong bag stop him from coming with them. A bunch of mormon married guys going clubbing just strikes me a strange, but whatev. Chris headed out that night in clothes that were so Ken's style (read:actually trendy) and so not Chris's style (read: never ever trendy) that it made me laugh. Reportedly, they had a grand time and came in at about 3 or so. I went to sleep.

Day two

This was water day. We found that it is rather nice out during the day, so we went to the beach and alternated going kayaking with other parents. Then we went to the pool, and discovered that Kaitlyn LOVED the pool. That shouldn't suprise anyone, since she loves bath time, and so this was just one giant bath. The pool was really neat, with lounge chairs and jets and a swim up bar. This started our week of asking for pina coladas and every other drink imaginable, and making sure they really did make them virgin. They apparently don't get much call for that, so it was a challenge. And they sure thought we were strange. Especially at dinner. If I ordered first, they could understand the woman with the little baby not having alcohol. And then the next person was the same, and they started to wonder. By the time a whole table ordered virgin drinks, they would walk away muttering "no alcohol?" with a "crazy gringos!" tone of voice.

But I digress. Not long after all of this swimming, I discovered that it is important to read all of the sunscreen labels before swimming. Kaitlyn's baby stuff said "very waterproof" on the back. She was the same color at the end of the day that she was at the beginning. Our "Sport" sunscreen had things like "ultra sweatproof!" on the front, but the back read "re-apply after every swim or after toweling dry." I slowly got redder and redder. The funniest part is that I am a wimp at sunburn. I think I honestly handle natural childbirth better than I handle sunburn. Still, better me than the baby. She came home just as lily white as she went.

We took a break from swimming to visit. Kaitlyn decided she liked the other baby in the group, and even got him to smile when she took his hands. I smell a romance coming on here!

That night we went to the Mexican restaurant at the resort. (The resort was "all-inclusive", meaning you could go to any of the six restaurants or the buffet and all the food was "free".) The food there was our favorite that we had all week. It was funny to see that what Taco Bell calls a chalupa has nothing at all to do with what they called a chalupa. But the real thing was amazingly tasty. We didn't get much of "real Mexico" at the resort, since they cater to American tourists. But what we did get, we really enjoyed.

Day three

Since I was sunburned a bit, I suggested that we go out instead of just swimming all day again. To be honest, this was when I started to feel really crappy. An air conditioned bus sounded really good. So we took the "shopping tour" that our hotel had, mainly because it was free (other people in our group paid $6o to take a taxi to Cancun to shop), we wanted some souveniers, and it would take us through actual Cancun. We had a great time, and got the usual trinkets (dress for Kaitlyn, handmade little purse for me, noise makers for Tyler, Nacho Libre mask for Christopher). And then, as the last stop was drawing to a close, we found the painting. We just thought the 3-D effect was really cool, and fell in love with it. With no idea how we were going to get it home, we bought it for $100 and had them box it up the best they could. We ended up checking it after a bellboy helped us wrap it better, and miracle of miracles it made it home safely to our family room! So cool.

Oh, and the tour also took us to Dolphin Beach to take pictures.

Not much else to say for that day. We just took it easy by the pool. We went to the Japenese Restaurant that night, but Kaitlyn had just had it, so I ended up having a minor meltdown and Christopher brought me my food back to the room. We both went to bed early that night.

Day four

Still felt really crappy. At first I thought it was just the sunburn, but I think in retrospect it was just my digestive system adjusting to Mexico. But today was Xcaret day! (Pronounced Ish-car-et.) Xcaret is a huge park, which is part zoo, part water park, and part archeological and cultural center. But when we were halfway there, I realized that I had put our three swimsuits in a plastic bag, since they were mildly wet from yesterday, and then left the bag in our hotel room. Our leader told us it would be cheaper to buy suits there than take a taxi back and get them, so Christopher bought a suit right as we entered the park. He tried it on and liked it, and then didn't want to change back and forth. So he just had the lady take the ink tag off while he sat on the counter. I love my crazy husband!

I tried to hold out as long as I could, but it was really really hot. I ended up spending the $60 on a suit just to prevent passing out in regular clothes. Meanwhile, we wandered and round and enjoyed looking at the turtles and other marine life.

Kaitlyn ended up just dozing off in her stroller whenever she got tired, since it was too hot to wrap her up and give her the binkie like we normally do. But we discovered that whenever she got fussy, we just gave her our map of the park. Ooooh, did she love that map. Pretty colors, lots of crinkling and tearing, and always a new corner to munch on. We took home literal shreds of map that were loved to bits. I was suprised we didn't find bits in her diaper the next day. Not my favorite toy for her, but there are days when you are just glad the baby is happy.

She decided she had had enough for the day during the "big show" at the end, so we ended up leaving early for the bus. Christopher ended up leaving early as well, mainly because a few of them were rather bored with the Mexican celebrity that was performing. We slept well that night.

Day five

I woke up feeling fabulous! Hooray! This morning, Christopher decided to try his hand at sailing, since the resort had boats you could rent out for only $2. Well, it was $2 if you knew what you were doing and didn't need a lesson. $40 for the lesson. So Christopher spent a half an hour online first learning everything, and then off they went. They loved it!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I had a hard time before we left figuring out what we would do with Kaitlyn on the beach. I wanted to protect her from the sun and from rolling around on the sand. I ended up taking a cheap little kiddie pool with us that had a shade on it. When I draped a towel over the shade and put her in there instead of the water, it worked perfectly! She liked that it made noise when she kicked the sides.

That night, some friends offered to watch Kaitlyn so we could go to the fancy French Restaurant that won't allow kids. We loved the atmosphere, and the food was really good (except the lobster bisque, because I love lobster bisque and this just didn't compare). Kaitlyn wouldn't go to sleep when we handed her off though, so by two hours into the 3 hour "European Sytle dining" meal, she was done. I got her to sleep and the waiter was kind enough to bring our dessert out to the lobby where we hung out on a couch, so it really turned out quite perfectly. And then we stayed up late that night playing BS with others in our group. It was a lot of fun!

Day six

We woke up to a serious storm. It had actually started the night before, but it was still in full force the next morning. Which was good, because it was time to go home. That made it easy to leave. Notice the palm trees.

When we got home, Tyler was actually happy to see us! He had a lot of fun with his cousins while we were gone, going to Seven Peaks waterpark and going down big inflated slides at the Fun Center. He had a bump on his head, and his cousins seem to have taught him to scream when he wants something instead of asking, but no permanent damage was done. And we are glad to be home!

Holy blog post, batman! Sorry this is so long. Like I said, I like telling stories . . .